Summary of interview with NN5

First in this subsection an overview of the interviewee’s background will be given. Thereafter the summary of the transcript will be divided into three parts; the planning- and decision making process (which include answers to question 1 and 2), information systems (which include answers to question, 3 – 6), and problems and successes in new systems (which include answers to question 7).

Background of interviewee

Interviewee NN5 is educated at the National Police School (Politiskolen) in Norway. NN5 has additional education in data bases, analysis, and management (Norwegian Police University College). After working at a local police district NN5 has been employed by Kripos (since 1993). The tasks at Kripos have been investigation, intelligence, analysis, and a better utilisation of information within the police. NN5 has been head of Subsection for Data Records Management (Avsnitt for registerforvaltning) in the Department of Information and Communication Technology (IKT-avdelingen), and head of Subsection for Analysis and Method Development (Avsnitt for analyse og metodeutvikling). NN5 has often been an instructor at Norwegian Police University College (Politihøgskolen), and the subject areas have been investigation, intelligence and analysis.

The planning- and decision making process

A new system is often planned and implemented after an idea or that someone has seen a system that could be useful for the police. The next step will be an unofficial testing to determine if the system is useful. Then the formalisation process begins. The organisation is very hierarchical and the process is gradually lifted to higher levels within the organisation and at some point a formal decision is made to look more closely on the information system. A demo is tested out and a survey is made to determine the usefulness of the system and how it can be utilised. A plan for the economic costs is then made. The plan includes costs for training and implementation. The training is probably the part where it fails the most, the technical part is always taken good care of by professionals in that area within the police. A short training is given in new systems, but often other tasks have to be performed and the

training is forgotten. Most employees would benefit from a follow-up training. The total utilisation of ICT (Information and communication technology) available at the police is low. PDMT (National Police Computing and material Service, Politiets data- og materielltjeneste) has failed to attend planning and decision making in some processes, probably due to lack of capacity.

Many of the systems within the police are not integrated. This is a huge problem. When presenting the police’ systems in lectures and talks an average of 40 systems was included. It is not possible for any one person to be able to utilise all these systems.

“Improvements have emerged during recent years, but the characteristics for police systems are that there has been a lack of overall thinking. A need surfaces, the need has to be met, and then a solution covering just that need is made. […]This leads to autonomous systems.”

”Det har kommet seg nå de siste årene, men det som har preget politisystemene er lite helhetlig tekning. Det oppstår et behov, det behovet må dekkes og så lager man en løsning som dekker akkurat det behovet. […] Så dette fører da til at det blir selvstendige systemer.”

Information systems

In the analysis phase of a case analysts read paper documents, mark out interesting information, and record the information in Excel. In some cases hundreds of folders with documents have to be manually analysed. Criminal intelligence analysts mostly use Excel and Analyst Notebook, but the systems are not utilised fully. Analyst Notebook has an analysis function and good interfaces for visualisation and the software are often used for visualisation only. In criminal intelligence analysis large, complicated amounts of information are handled. It is important to be able to present the information in a less complicated manner. Judges will often be familiar with the information, but jury members are not. An explanation of the term ‘base station’ is easier to understand if a visualisation of the technical aspects is provided.

Exchange of information with the judicial system always takes the form of paper documents. Within Kripos and between Kripos and the police districts the picture is more varied. Electronic exchange exits between e.g. BL (the investigation system of the police) and Strasak (journal of criminal cases) and Edis (database including missing vehicles and persons).

Problems and successes in new systems

Analyst Notebook is definitely an example on systems with success. It handles large amount of dynamic information well, new information is often added to a case. Changing information from unverified to verified are also being handled well. Problems with information systems are the lack of integration between different systems. The result is double or triple recording of data items. A danger then is the risk of errors. Even though quality assurance routines are followed, the risk of making errors is always present, even more so when one data item has to be recorded several times. This repeated recording also uses more resources than necessary. In later years much more focus is placed on choosing software that interacts, and many of the products are acquired from Microsoft and I2.

With the description of the structured interviews the data gathering is concluded. Results of the research are presented in the next chapter (chapter 7), as appendices and throughout the theoretical part of the thesis (the sections labelled introduction and comments in chapter 2 – 5).

CHAPTER 7